From Rare Tea Republic

Made entirely of Phoobsering Estate’s famous cultivar, P312, this flavorful selection is the perfect expression of spring in Darjeeling. A sweet briskness lingers on the palate with notes of Lily of the Valley and sweet lemon. There is a planty quality to the finish.

6 Tasting Notes

This smells crisp and floral…much like Lily of the Valley (I agree with the description) BUT my favorite part is the obvious Lemony-Notes they also touched on in there description! These notes totally make this tea for me! I LOVE that!

At first glance I thought it was a green tea but it is not. It’s a Black Tea. It infuses to a yellow-orange-light brown color and also has woodsy flavors in the background as well.

Similar to my experience with the Wah First Flush from RTR, when I first opened the package and looked at the tea, I thought this might be a green tea. The coloration is more like a green tea than a black. When it brews, the color is quite light for a black tea. But, the flavor is definitely that of a black Darjeeling – light, yes, but still quite black tea like.

The aroma is very floral and a unique floral note … I have to agree that I smell lily of the valley here. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed such a distinct Lily of the Valley note. The flavor is nice – extraordinarily smooth, smoother than I’d expect from a Darjeeling, with a nice muscatel finish. There are other fruit notes as well, including a clear lemon-y like flavor, that really brightens the cup.

Really a lovely tea experience. A really nice Darjeeling, if this is indicative of what we might expect from the 2012 harvest, I’d say this is going to be a very nice year, indeed.

I brought a bunch of their samples from last year to work to see if I could focus on finishing them off this week. I really don’t think I can justify buying any more FF darjeeling until I finish off last year’s supply, of which I have PLENTY. Well, maybe just a few samples when Upton Tea comes out with theirs. :)

This tea steeps up to be a light amber/yellowish color and has an intense floral/nutty aroma. It still seems wonderful to me – the plucking date was April 11, 2012 according to the bag they gave me. I am picking up notes of tropical fruit with a slight palette cleansing astringency in the finish. Still seems really fresh and flavorful, just like springtime. These ff darjeelings can be a total sensory experience!

The short, tightly-rolled dry leaf is various shades of medium to dark green and smells sweet and somewhat floral. The brewed leaf smells rather nondescript. I get traditional FF darjeeling notes that smell more weedy than floral to me. Liquor is a clear amber.

The flavor is pretty nice. I taste a little bit of the lemony notes, but nothing else I can identify. No idea what Lily of the Valley would smell or taste like, so maybe it’s there. This cup is not too fruity or floral and I enjoyed it. It does start to get bitter as it cools.

The second steep didn’t taste as nice. I probably waited 3-5 minutes after brewing before I tasted it and it was already fairly bitter.

So, one good steep and one not. I haven’t been real crazy about any FF Darjeelings and I probably wouldn’t buy this in the future.

Preparation

This tea was okay. It lacks that refreshing, almost minty quality of a Darjeeling, has none of those thicker muscatel notes, nor strong savoriness in the finish. The woodsy tannins were also pretty weak. (Unfortunately, these are all the things I love in a Darjeeling!)

It absolutely did have the light floral scent of Lily of the Valley and an amazing sweet lemon meringue note. This might be a good tea to have with some lemon butter cookies, but I don’t think I like it enough to want to drink it alone.

EDIT: I tried another steeping with slightly more leaf this time, and now I am picking up a buttered spinach vegetal note and a lemon flavor. I don’t know what to think of this tea. I don’t really like the taste of it as I am drinking it, but both the aroma and aftertaste are wonderful. Yuck…Also getting a grassiness now.